One of the key functions of a good smartphone is to give you information at-a-glance, so when a new text message, email, or other alert comes in, you can quickly scan it and decide whether it warrants an immediate response. But there’s not a lot of space near the top of your phone where the […]
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Paranoid Android “Peek” borrows from Motorola’s “Active Notifications”
One of the cool features that makes Motorola’s Moto X phone a “touchless” device is the ability to view notifications without even touching your phone. When they come in, a small portion of the display will show notifications automatically while consuming very little power. Not every phone has the display technology to show what Motorola […]
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Phones with Intel’s 64-bit chips could discourage custom ROMs
Intel is getting ready to launch its next-gen smartphone chips. The upcoming 64-bit “Merrifield” processors will be the company’s most powerful smartphone chips to date, while offering longer battery life. But there may be something else that makes Merrifield chips special: Phones with the new processors may be designed to disable key features if you […]
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CyanogenMod’s new hires: Founders of AOKP, Chameleon ROM
CyanogenMod Inc has a new employee: the founder of one of the other popular custom Android ROMs. Developer Roman Birg created the Android Open Kang Project in 2011. It’s an open source, Android-based operating system known for offering users a huge array of options for performance tweaks and visual customization. At this point AOKP is a […]
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Jolla’s Sailfish OS ported to run on the Nexus 4
There’s only one phone that’s currently designed to ship with the Sailfish operating system. But Sailfish is based on open source software, and at least one person has already figured out how to install Sailfish on the Google Nexus 4 smartphone. YouTube user sledges has posted a video showing the installation and setup process. It […]
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OminiROM multi-window concept for Android borrows from webOS
One of the key differences between Android, iOS, and other mobile operating systems and their desktop or notebook counterparts is support for multi-window modes. On a desktop PC you can open as many windows as you’d like and arrange them side-by-side or in other configurations. On a phone or tablet, you’re usually stuck looking at […]
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Paranoid Android keeps making Google’s software better (Quick Settings 3.0)
The developers of Paranoid Android have a habit of taking software developed by Google or other developers and tweaking it by adding another layer or two of awesome. Their latest targets: Immersive mode and the Quick Settings panel in Android 4.4 KitKat. The team has released a third beta of their custom version of Android. […]
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Android ROM news: Gallery replacement, smart phone dialer, and more
Google and big companies like Samsung aren’t the only ones regularly adding new features to the software for Android phones and tablets. Startups like CyanogenMod and community supported projects such as OmniROM and Paranoid Android are regularly tweaking Google’s software by adding new features. Here are a few of the latest updates from the custom […]
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OnePlus One smartphone will ship with CyanogenMod installed
The second phone to feature CyanogenMod software is on the way, but this time it’s not a limited edition version of an existing handset. Chinese startup OnePlus has announced that its first phone will ship with a “specially designed version of CyanogenMod.” OnePlus is a new company founded by former Oppo executive Pete Lau. […]
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Motorola XOOM gets unofficial Android 4.4 update (near its 3rd birthday)
Once upon a time Google treated tablets as second-class citizens in the Android ecosystem. Then the company partnered with Motorola (which Google hadn’t yet acquired) to release the first officially sanctioned Android tablet in 2011. It’s been almost exactly 3 years since the Motorola XOOM was unveiled, and Google and Motorola have largely abandoned the […]
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Oppo offers official CyanogenMod ROM for the Oppo N1 phone
Chinese phone maker Oppo is the first company to release a phone that comes with CyanogenMod pre-loaded. The Oppo N1 CyanogenMod Edition is a limited edition phone that went on sale December 24th and which features the custom version of Gogole Android. But Oppo also offers a version of the phone that comes with ColorOS, […]
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CyanogenMod 11 M1 released for Nexus phones and tablets
Since Google released the source code for Android 4.4 KitKat, plenty of developers have started building custom versions of Android for various phones and tablets. But now the makers of one of the most popular custom ROMs have weighed in with their first build of KitKat. CyanogenMod 11.0 M1 is now available for the Google […]